South Africans escaping violence flock to Perth

So popular is Australia as an ­escape route for white South Africans that the phrase “Packing for Perth” or just “PFP” has become a common term for those planning to flee. The West Australian capital, with its familiar warm climate and beaches, is jokingly labelled “Perthfontein” by South African migrants. But for all the South ­Africans who are happily making new lives in Australia, thousands more are desperate to come here.

Fuelled by economic inequality and racial tensions, the worst of the violence has spread from the major cities to rural areas, where white farmers are the primary targets of gangs who commit murder, rape, torture and robbery. …

Encouragement:

Firebrand EFF leader Julius Malema last week sought to reassure whites that he still wanted them in the country. But in other comments, he has appeared to ­incite racial hatred. Malema was convicted of hate speech in 2011, for singing an anti-apartheid revolutionary song with lyrics including “kill the farmer, kill the Boer”.

In 2016 he told supporters he was “not calling for the slaughter of white people‚ at least for now”.

“Go to Australia,” he told whites in March. “It is only racists who went to Australia when Mandela got out of prison. It is only racists who went to Australia when 1994 came. It is the racists again who are going back to Australia.”